Lite DAKOTA GRAMMAR, TEXTS, AND ETHNOGRAPHY. 
When Du Luth was fitting out his expedition by Lake Superior to the 
Dakota Nation and others, Robert La Salle was preparing to go to the great 
river of the West by the south end of Lake Michigan.’ Louis Hennepin, a 
Franciscan priest of the Recollect order, npeompaniedl him. 
La Salle stopped to build a ship on Lake Erie, which he called the 
Grifin. This so detained his expedition that it was late in the fall of 1679 
when they reached Green Bay. There the Griffin was left for the winter, 
and La Salle and Hennepin, with others, proceeded in canoes to the south 
end of the lake (Michigan), and thence by portage into the Illinois River. 
In the beginning of the year 1680, La Salle, after enduring incredible 
hardships, built a fort a little below where is now the town of Peoria, which 
he called “ Créve Coeur,” thus making his heart troubles historical. 
In the month of February, La Salle selected Hennepin and two voy- 
ageurs named Michol Accau and the Pieard du Gay, whose real name was 
Antoine Auguel, to undertake the discovery of the Upper Mississippi. “On 
the last day of the month they embarked in a canoe laden with merchan- 
dise, and the venerable Ribourde took leave of Hennepin with the charge, 
“Viriliter age et confortetur cor tuum.” On March 12 Hennepin and his 
companions turned their canoe up the stream of the Great River, and on 
April 11 they met a war party of 120 Dakota in thirty-three bark canoes. 
This meeting took place near the mouth of the Wisconsin, where Marquette 
had first seen the Mississippi, nearly seven years before. The Frenchmen 
had found wild turkeys abundant on their voyage, and were at this moment 
on the shore cooking their dinner. The Dakota approached with hostile 
demonstrations, and some of the old warriors repeated the name ‘‘ Miamiha,” 
giving the white men to understand that they were on the warpath against 
fhe Miami and Illinois. But Hennepin expl ned to them, by signs and 
marks on the sand, that these Indians were now across the Mississippi, 
beyond their reach. 
The white men were the prisoners of the war party. What should be 
done with them? Not without much debate, did they decide to abandon 
the warpath and return home. Then, by signs, they gave the white men 
to understand that it was determined to kill them. This was the policy 
and the counsel of the old) war chief, ‘Again-fills-the-pipe” by name, 
(Akepagiday), because he was mourning the loss of a son killed by the 
Miami. Hennepin and his companions endeavored to obtain the merey of 
their captors by giving them a large amount of presents. They spent an 
anxious night. But the next morning, better counsels prevailed, and ; 
!'The great village which he calls “ Kathio” must have been in that region, 



